BEST SELLING COMIC BOOKS of this DECADE (2010-2013)

We are about to take an in depth analysis of the Best Selling Comic Books of this time period to show the state of the current comic industry and look for any trends and to answer the all important question of “Can a comic with a gigantic print run have a chance of going up in value?”.

Only 131 different comic books have sold over 100,000 copies so far this decade.

Only 6 comics have sold over 200,000 in the past 40 months – a rare feat in the current comic economy. In the same 40 month time period 50 years ago (1960 to early 1963) at least 1,200 different comics reached that sales figure !

The current biggest print runs either come with a new #1 series beginning, multiple covers, highlight of a storyline such as a 1st appearance or Death of a major character.

Walking Dead #100 is the best selling comic of this decade. This super impressive for a number of reasons. Its not a #1, its not a Marvel/DC title, its not a 1st appearance and its not even a superhero title. Walking Dead is a sensation due to the huge interest in the TV show it ranks #1 mainly due to increasing demand for the title but primarily due to a large amount of variant covers which every Deadhead seemed to want. Also impressive that Image has no other comics ever selling numbers that large and also the fact that no past issue of The Walking Dead had ever sold more than 80,000 copies before.

On the chart you will see its overall ranking followed by its monthly rank at Diamond when it was published.

Issue # is followed by original cover price and publisher and print run numbers. Year and Month

I took current price values from 2 major online comic dealers – Mycomicshop.com and MileHighComics.com

I’ve had the debate so many times about whether its ever worth stockpiling new #1 issues when they have such massive print runs. Surely these are not a good investment. The majority of comics don’t go up in value in the first place nevermind an overprinted comic.

So here we will find out if this is true or not issue by issue.

First of all I am not here to advertise for either online comic dealer but wanted to show 2 prices to show how one dealer prices their books differently than the next. Comics are worth whatever you want to pay. MileHighComics are consistently much higher yet they often have up to 50% sales of their entire website inventory.

The one driving factor that makes books valuable is QUALITY. Some titles offer an exciting storyline with amazing artwork. They may have a big influence in the superhero universe which makes these books historically important in the timeline chronology of the specific hero and their universe overall. This helps keep demand up in the future and certain books will prove over time to be very important. When this happens we find that the books do in fact sell out and increase.

Just because a book has a massive print run does NOT mean that it cannot sell out. Comics values are all based on supply and demand. A perfect example of this is the death of Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-man #700. Not only the biggest print run of any Spider-man comic this decade but also historically important in his timeline which helped sell the book out, go up in value instantly, and have 4 printings.

Does this mean then that all comics with high print runs must be important. Definitely not ! There are still many books on the list which due to large print runs never sold out and stores were stuck with extra copies as they over estimated what they could sell and therefore the books may have even landed up in the $1.00 clearance bin. You will see numerous books on the list that are still worth cover price.

Let’s just analyze the Top 10 best selling comics of the decade based on their price increase or no-increase.

Out of the top 10 we find Walking Dead, Justice League, Uncanny Avengers, Guardians, Avengers VS X-men 6, Avengers all hovering near the cover price. That is 6 of the top 10 which shows in this instance that 40% of the top 10 actually sold out quick and had huge price gains: Avengers VS X-men 1, Amazing Spider-man 700, Batman 1, Superior Spider-man 1.

In the top 20 the only books to show increases are Action 1, Avengers VS X-men 3 and 4.

Here we rank the most valuable comics from the Best Selling Comic chart simply based on how valuable they are now. Which have been the best investment from the entire list. Using MyComicShop.com current prices (May 2013) we find out how many comics have been a good investment even with a large print run.

The first 8 comics on the list are hot titles and completely sold out from MyComicShop.com so we sorted these titles by the highest prices at MileHighComics.com

The most valuable recent mass produced comics are Batman #13 (Death In The Family) which is up to $50.00 after 7 months and Superior Spider-man #1 at $23.00 and Amazing Spider-man #700 at $20.00 in only 5 months.

Note that the top 9 are all DC comics and 8 of them relate to Batman.

Only the top 12 out of 131 titles have reached $20.00 or higher – about 9% success rate

Only the top 21 out of 131 titles have reached $10.00 or higher – about 15% success rate

Only the top 31 out of 131 titles have reached $8.00 or higher – about 22% success rate

Only the top 38 out of 131 titles have reached $6.00 or higher – about 28% success rate

Another way to look at this is you have a 28% chance of doubling your money on a mass print comic.

You have about a 15% chance of tripling your money on a mass print comic.

The bottom 8 comics on the list are currently being sold for LESS than cover price !

Does the cover price of a comic affect how many copies stores will sell? Well generally speaking expensive books can have resistance but lets look at the rare few expensive cover price books to take the lead on this ranking.

Amazing Spider-man #700 and Batman Annual #1 are the most valuable back issues with a hefty cover price.

Death of Peter Parker in #700 was an amazing triumpth in Dec 2012 selling out over 200,000 copies at $7.99 and even reached a 4th printing. Note that Point One #1 was $5.99 and now sells for $1.70 !

Finally what are the overall best selling titles on a month to month basis. Here we look at the 131 best selling comics sorted by title so we can look for the most popular titles.

DC Comics line of the New 52 shows a gigantic presence on this list dominating with huge consecutive runs of monthly issues:

Batman 20 issues in a row, Justice League also all 20 issues in a row, Action 5, Green Lantern 4, Detective 3 and Flash 2 issues.

A totally amazing feat that Batman and Justice League have had prints of over 100,000 of every issue of the entire series 20 issues so far. Batman #19 even recently ranked as the #1 comic of April 2013.

Thanks to John Jackson Miller at www.comichron.com for compiling original Diamond sales lists.

I am always happy to hear your comments and thoughts/criticisms on any of my posts.

Terry Hoknes (author) from Hoknes Comics loves analyzing statistics and watching the growth and fall of comic titles over a period of time. He sells all of the latest hot back issue secondary market new comics at www.HoknesComics.com and also self-publishes a series of books called “Investing In Comic Books” that focus on the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages of comics. hoknes@hotmail.com